Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Real Estate Review 2010

As we look foreword to 2011, we view the past year with either good riddance or with glee. Now I don’t believe for a minute that many have a warm place in their heart for 2010. It was a year that was filled with ups and downs. The real estate market was in the middle of a major shift and Realtors were making adjustments themselves to ride it out.

Continued unemployment was the main reason for a poor economy and stifling paychecks. We had record low interest rates, yet not many were buying. Every economist in the country was predicting growth, yet they showed disappointment when that didn’t come to fruition.

There are some new aspects of the real estate business that came to the forefront during the last year. Many Realtors and real estate agents were embracing lateral income in the form of Property Management and Home tending, this is the practice of placing live in short term renters in vacant homes until the home sells. Home staging became popular with many agents offering this service. The bank industry added more and more new positions to handle all of the repossessions and foreclosures. New companies developed that take care of all of the banks short sales and foreclosed properties.

Yet in the end the year was not that great for the market. Real estate is and always will be one of the most important pieces of the countries money markets. It will rebound, but the question is when that will happen. If you listen to the government coffers it will happen in 2011 to 2012 that would be a well accepted timeframe. The only problem is that jobs need to come back before any predictions can be made.

I look ahead and welcome 2011, because you have to be better than our current times.

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